In 1831, the Supreme Court handed down a decision about the forcible movement of natives. What did they say?

In 1831, the Supreme Court heard the case Cherokee Nation v. Georgia. In the late 1820s, the state of Georgia began to take away the rights of Native Americans and to move them off their lands in a process referred to as "Indian removal." In response, the Cherokee argued that they had negotiated treaties with the U.S. federal government that had granted them the rights to these lands. The Cherokee brought this case to the Supreme Court to stop the state of Georgia from removing them from their land.

However, in this case, the Supreme Court ruled that the court did not have the jurisdiction, or legal right, to hear this case. While the court sympathized with the suffering of the Cherokees, the court under Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokee were both an foreign nation, separate from the U.S., and a people dependent on the U.S. government. The U.S. government could negotiate treaties with independent nations but not with Indian nations such as the Cherokee.

However, in 1832, in the case Worcester v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee were a separate, independent nation with a right to retain their lands. The Cherokee hoped this second decision would cause the federal government to intervene to stop Indian removal carried out by the state of Georgia, but President Jackson did not enforce the court's decision and allowed Georgia to continue the policy of Indian removal.